French luxury group LVMH performed well in 2017: turnover for the full fiscal year grew 13 %, mainly thanks to improved Chinese results. The company’s fashion division even posted a 21 % surge.
Growing demand for Louis Vuitton
LVMH’s turnover reached 42.64 billion euro in 2017, which is a sizeable increase compared to the 37.6 billion euro from the year before. Well known for its luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior, the company mainly benefited from its fashion division, which grew 21 % to 15.5 billion euro, mainly thanks to excellent Louis Vuitton sales.
The group’s other divisions also performed well: perfume and cosmetics went up 12 %, watches and jewelry rose by 10 % and wine and liquors improved by 5 %. The Christmas holiday season was extremely fruitful for LVMH, with a 24 % turnover increase in December alone.
Record year
These results have also yielded a more than decent profit: operational profit grew 18 % to 8.3 billion euro and net profit even grew 29 % to 5.1 billion euro. “LVMH achieved another record year. The excellent performance, to which all our businesses contributed, is due in part to the buoyant environment but above all to the remarkable creative strength of our brands and their ability to constantly reinvent themselves”, CEO Bernard Arnault proudly claimed.
LVMH is cautiously optimistic about 2018: it still forecasts growth, but suspects it will be difficult to sustain 2017’s growth rate.
